Various approaches have been devised to protect wire and cable splices and terminations and pipe junctions and joints, variously against corrosion, moisture and corona discharge. Ranging from simple tape wrapping to far more sophisticated means, all have in common the objects of economy and adaptability to convenient field installation. In substantial part, resort has been had to the use of "heat recoverable" materials, i.e., polymeric materials which have been dimensionally changed from an original heat stable form to an independently dimensionally heat unstable form capable of moving in the direction of its original form upon the application of heat alone. Examples of such heat recoverable materials are found in Currie U.S. Pat. No. 2,027,962 and in Cook et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,242 where heat recoverable sleeves are proposed for protection of substrates. Commonly, such materials are cross-linked during the shape-memory impartation process, and the usual concomitant of that step is to substantially deter sleeve-substrate adhesion. While some workers (ie, G.B. Pat. No. 839,485) have suggested that a remainder of uncross-linked polymeric material may be expressed from the sleeve during recovery in aid of adhesion such material tends to shrink on crystallization, with consequent diminution in adhesion. More often, a sealant or adhesive has been separately supplied between sleeve and substrate. Orr, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,807, proposes to protect pipe joints by shrinking a sleeve about a pipe joint first field-coated with an asphaltic or adhesive material. Where sealant material is to be disposed between sleeve and substrate, that is much more conveniently done by employing sleeves whose interiors have been pre-coated with a fusible material (Wetmore U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,211) such as a hot melt adhesive or a viscid fluid (Wetmore U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,819). While useful in many employments, recoverable sleeves lined with hot melt adhesives are somewhat costly, and commonly require more heat than is needed to effect recovery in order to bring the adhesive into play. Sleeves lined with viscid fluids are on the one hand advantaged by the resulting positive seal (e.g., the viscid material moves to seal perforations in the recovered sleeve), while on the other hand the very mobility of the sealant can create problems in some employments. For example, pinholes in pressurized telephone cable about which such sleeves have been recovered could conceivably lead to purging of the sealant with consequent loss of insulative integrity. Moreover, without the aid of mechanical contrivances or other external agencies, such materials cannot practicably be employed in wraparound configurations, where recovery forces could occasion unwinding of the sealant-provided article from about the substrate.